It’s that time of year again; tax time. What does that mean exactly? Pulling together receipts, reviewing bank accounts, collecting donation forms, finding investments; organizing anything and everything that has to do with your finances. If only you had take care of this when it happened last June. Or better yet, had a system set up where you didn’t even have to think about what purchases you made, where they happened and what they were for. If only you had the Mint.com app.
The Mint.com app allows you to track all your accounts—banks, credit cards, loans, investments—in one place. To start, plug in the identifying information for any accounts you want to include, and the app will track all your activity and balances in all those accounts. They connect to almost every US banking financial institution with internet banking capabilities which means, your bank, is most likely already part of their system.
Once all of your desired accounts are set, the apps analytical tools go to work. Drawing on all your financial activity, it will, for example, organize your spending into simple categories such as restaurants, gas, groceries, etc. The tablet version even offers multicolored interactive historical pie charts.
There’s also a section where you can set up a budget based on the categories and keep track of how well you stick to it. It creates an easy way to see where you overspend. The app will alert you if you’re going over budget, and it can warn you if any of your balances are low, if there are bills to be paid, or if there is any unusual spending. On the investment front, the iPad app can show your latest asset purchases and the account’s latest value.
Mint uses 128-bit SSL encryption – the same security that banks use – so you know your data is protected. It’s also validated by VeriSign and TRUSTe. It’s a “read-only” service which means you cannot move funds between accounts and neither can anyone else.
Just think, all of your financial information on one easy to use, secure platform. I’m sure that would make pulling your tax information together a little easier.It’s available on iPhone, iPad and Android, and it’s FREE.